My Own Private Idaho – 3/5
The Shakespeare riff is weird and unnecessary, and only works when it feels like it's being made a joke of – riff-raffs wanting to sound high-falutin' because they wish to seem above their means, but also above being above their means. (Which means Keanu might be the best part of that part? I've never attached this specific word to him, but he's surreal, and his best movies position him in a place where the world warps around him.) The rest is on River Phoenix's shoulders and man, what an actor, what a loss. He's one of those beautiful ones who weren't afraid to be ugly. One comes around every 15 years or so, and each one helps to serve as a pin in particular moment in time. They are epoch, come to life. The movie is fine. But River Phoenix is monument to time and place.
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